Rite of Passage

When I was little (I think maybe three years old?), there was a commercial on TV for Silkience shampoo. It featured several different women with long, flowing, Farrah Fawcett-type hair. One of the models was a beautiful Asian woman whose hair swooped dramatically over one eye. I thought the whole 30-second spot was the height of glamour, and that particular hairstyle hiding one eye was the epitome of sophistication.

At the time, I was trying to grow my hair long enough to wear pigtails...also a sophisticated look; but the Silkience hair gave me a new vision.

I knew that I, a three-year-old Midwestern girl with stick-straight mouse-brown hair not quite long enough for pigtails, could look exactly like the Asian model...if only I could get my hair to swoop down over one eye like hers did. A brush didn't work. Neither did bobby pins. I was frustrated, but a flash of genius showed me the way: scissors! I could cut my hair into that gorgeous swoop!

Needless to say, the scissors in my little paws did not yield the anticipated results. My mom got a big surprise when she saw me. And the only help for the whole situation was a Herself-the-Elf haircut for me. Let me just say that no one commented on my sophisticated appearance that year.

I think every little girl gives herself a little home haircut at some point or another. So I should not have been quite so surprised when I turned around from the stove tonight while making dinner to hear Libby saying, "I cut my hair!" And hair was everywhere on the floor.

Truly, I did not see this coming. The only thing I can possibly think of that may have given Libby the idea to do this was this morning's Sesame Street episode: Baby Bear needed a haircut, and the show's segments were all about hair and haircuts.

Whatever the reason, here is the result. The other side of her head is much the same.


Please. Let me invite you to pause for a moment and take it all in: The home haircut. The bruise under one eye. The polyester Tinkerbell nightgown with reindeer pajama pants (worn all day long...we never quite got dressed today).

Sophistication.